Hearthpwn

Colour Chart entry:

Lady Vashj is the Sea Witch: A versatile Naga sorceress capable of unleashing devastating water-based magic as well as powerful minions of the deep to overwhelm your opponent, but can also lurk beneath the Ocean Depths, biding her time, waiting for the right moment to strike. 

After a lengthy hiatus, the Sea Witch class has received its Core Set with a large number of changes, buffs, and new cards!

For a development timeline of the Sea Witch prior to the Core Set, refer to the below spoiler:

• • The Basic Set provided the framework for this class, introducing the most core of mechanics and playstyles.
  • The Classic cards built up and outwards from the Basic Set. While the initial Basic cards attempted to tone down the Sea Witch's inherently complicated playstyle, the Classic set attempts to slowly introduce the first glance at the strategies the Sea Witch has at her disposal.
  • With more cards from the Whispers of the Old Gods and One Knight in Karazhan expansions, the Sea Witch slowly became more complex and explores different possible interactions and archetypes.
  • Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Journey to Un'Goro shake up the meta, and the Sea Witch finds herself competing with a diverse array of other deck archetypes in different classes. However, a custom Gadgetzan gang, a Quest (Freeze Sea Witch) that has been slowly planned for since the Basic Set, and both strong value and tempo-oriented cards keep the Sea Witch afloat in the shifting meta. Un'Goro also finalizes the token-Murloc archetype, a deck that has slowly gotten support since the Basic set.
  • And at last, the final two sets of this competition make their mark on the Sea Witch's already considerable arsenal. Knights of the Frozen Throne brings about the new Death Knight hero card and the continuation of a new archetype first introduced in Un'Goro, big Sea Witch, as well as support for Quest Sea Witch. Kobolds and Catacombs, with its Spellstones and Legendary Artifacts, also introduce new ways to play and deck types, namely Lifesteal/Heal-Control Sea Witch.
  • The Witchwood is the first expansion completed outside of the competition. Many key cards and cycles were rotated out, notably strong early-game options to fill the Sea Witch's deck with Ocean Depths, a key Murloc card, and the entire Hero Power synergy package. The Witchwood aims to fill in the gaps here and there with several new options, bolstering the Sea Witch's early game with some tempo-oriented minions, midrange options, and a few late game tools as well. The first signs of a faster, proactive Sea Witch game also appears in the form of a unique 4-mana legendary.
  • The Boomsday Project reintroduces Mechs, and the Sea Witch is no slacker in that department. Though they are not the main focus of the Sea Witches this expansion, they have options to seamlessly unite Mechs and Murlocs and powerful, hulking, control-style mechs too. The scientific theme of the Sea Witches is genetics; They're messing around with what they shouldn't be. Genetics revolve around minion cost and summoning minions. Lots of minions. This sounds boring, but the Sea Witches wouldn't be Sea Witches if they didn't use that concept in... peculiar ways. The name of the game is all about Tempo, and the Sea Witches finally get a strong push towards a zoo-like playstyle, having been relegated to mid or late-game options for a while, save for Murlocs. Heal-Witch gets some much needed tools as well.
  • Rastakhan's Rumble sees some marked departures from the usual, slower playstyles of Sea Witch. They do not represent a team, per se, but instead are the cheerleading faction! While they don't really worship a Loa in Warcraft lore, Sethraliss is reptilian so we are going with that. At this point, most of the Sea Witch's most powerful cards and archetype enablers have gone. Big Sea Witch is no longer a thing and the most efficient ways of putting in Ocean Depths into your deck are also gone. Murlocs, too, are gone for the most part. Therefore, this expansion is a "test" to see this class can support any other archetypes: Charge Sea Witch, a combo deck, and Zoo Witch. Charge Sea Witch was a minor archetype in MSoG and the first tool has been added to this deck with further support coming. Zoo Witch uses lots of wide-ranging buffs and can quickly amass high-health, difficult to remove minions.

List of Changes from Wild/Classic versions:

• • Hindsight: Art/name change from Calm Currents (Basic).
  • Saltspring Wand (WOTOG): Unchanged.
  • Ghostscale Scout (Witchwood): -1 Attack, -1 Mana.
  • Sea Elemental (Basic): -1 Attack, +1 Health.
  • Highborne Grace (Classic): Unchanged.
  • Blackhorn Subjugator: Art/name change from Blackblade Stalker (Witchwood).
  • Three Fathoms Below (Basic): Art change, -1 Mana.
  • Evaporation (WOTOG): Added Nature tag.
  • Scry Me a River (Basic): Added Nature tag.
  • The Water Cycle: New card.
  • Vashj'ir Portal (ONiK): Added Nature tag.
  • Azshara's Journal (ONiK): Added Arcane tag, Highborne cards changed:
    • Chronic Tonic: Added Arcane tag.
    • Destruction: Added Arcane tag.
    • Infinite Intellect: Added Arcane tag, art change, changed from "Draw 4 cards" to "Draw 5 cards".
    • Arcane Detonation: Added Arcane tag.
    • Boundless Mana: Art change, +1 Attack and Health.
  • Highborne's Elegy: New card.
  • Sirenic Banshee (KOTFT): +1 Health, added Lifesteal.
  • Brine Crossbolter (Classic): Changed from "Double this weapon's attack" to "Gain +3 Attack".
  • Warlord Kalithresh (Classic): Unchanged.

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Highborne Cards

Instead of joining one of the three existing gangs, competitors had the option of creating a custom gang, as long as they included someone who was previously eliminated. I introduce the Cutthroat Cult, a ruthless, ghostly crew of shark-pirates who took over the Gadgetzan Port while the other three crime families were too busy fighting with each other! While the Goons buff your hand, the Jade Lotus focus on board presence with their golems, and the Kabal aim to gain value through deckbuilding and potions, the Cult provides strong mid-game presence with hero powers.

The Cutthroat Cult is made up of the mysterious Sea Witch, the deceptive Illusionist (Broeck1), and the power-hungry Harbinger (Mewdrops). These questionable magic-users have rallied behind the Davy Jaws, who may or may not be a ghost, the captain of the Flying Dutchman, which may or may not exist. The pirate has promised power beyond imagination, so long as these three classes partake in the occasional ritual. Sounds like too good of a deal!

The gang members:

The Tri-Class Cards:

Davy Jaws' Tokens

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Challenge Card

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Northgate Reservoir's original idea was by Demonxz95.

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The Voidcaster

The Voidcaster is the last line of defense against the void... in their own mind at least. Taking in the powers that they seek to fight, the Voidcasters manipulate singularities and remove enemies from the board with disturbing efficiency. With powerful singular use secrets, spell targeting manipulation and tradeoff with enemy's armor, the Voidcaster dances in and out of rifts on the battlefield, shunting enemies into rifts and overall... looking purple doing it. Oh, and Locus-walker ? The Ethereal behind the whole movement? He'll reveal his secrets... in due time... (C'mon Blizzard, don't keep him an enigma forever)

Singularity

While we won't see this in basic set, it's worth seeing the change to Singularity. Now, you can still no longer play any other Singularities, but you can cheat them out now. We talked about it deep in building the class (Me and McF4rtson that is) and we decided this erases a lot of complex problems we were having.

Example Cards

The Voidcaster is primarily a spellcaster style class. It summons big minions and it has access to a few weapons, but in it's essence it's mostly here to spread effects directly through it's own spells. Thus, these are some of the spells that represent the strengths of the class.

• Gravity Well: This is one of the more important concepts of the Voidcaster ; Spreading single target spells. All spellcasters have there own way to leave a mark and stand out, and bar Zentimo , I thought this concept was under-explored. With Gravity Well , you can spread a single target destruction, a damage spell and  perhaps a card draw or two.
• Mindbender: Why use the void if you won't use all the Old Gods tricks? Mindbender is the cheap cycle effect of Voidcaster , and like all 1-mana draws, it has the possibility to draw more than one, though only through spell-spreading effects.
• Dissipation: Look, I love 4d Chess style cards; The cards wherein you and your opponent have to think ahead of each other to make best use of it's effects. Dissipation damage tics occur on both players turn, whenever any card is played, until the minion died. So now your opponent has to decide how to proceed, if they can play spells, so on and so forth. Or... you blow an excess of cards on killing a minion before their turn.
• Twisted Heartbeat: More Old God trickery. The Twisted Heartbeat is one of the few AoE's for the class, but it follows the trend they all will. It requires multiple cards to truly work, but once it does it spreads damage wide. Unlike Defile , Twisted Heartbeat is not an instant boardwipe. Rather, you're going to have to work to get it firing off, and likely not all decks will sustain it.
• Warp Allegiance: Your will is not your own... In hearthstone, Priest is the class most associated with domination, but that's tied to their shadow forms... the forms that use the void's might. Warp Allegiance is the strongest removal the Voidcaster tangls with, completing controlling an enemy minion. It's priced midway between Entomb and Mind Control , and is an effect we probably won't revisit too often. Noone likes having all their stuff stolen.

Remaining Cards

So there you have it; Voidcaster Basic. I'm excited to be working through this contest and I'm so hyped to see what everyone else has to offer this time around! Thanks for taking a look at my crazy class, and I hope we all have a great run of it!

Here's round one's submission... Voidcaster Entry one

THE BLOOD MAGE

A Blood Mage is an adept caster capable of casting devastating spells from afar. Once part of the Alliance long ago, they turned to what appeared to be darker magics of fire, some becoming outright warlocks. They were once led by the mighty Kael'thas Sunstrider who succumbed to visions of grandeur. While he is gone, he remains the most famous, or infamous, rather, Blood Mage of Azeroth.

Cauterize was a difficult Hero Power to develop but it embodies the Blood Mage well both mechanically and lore-wise. It can be viewed as "Destroy a minion with 2 health or less." In a sense, it's a bit like Mortal Coil , always a strong card when you can get it off. Furthermore, it helps support the class' core identity, triggering on damage revenge effects, an in-game example being Acolyte of Pain .

The Blood Mage is bit of a mixed bag class, like Shaman. They excel in dealing direct damage and racking up Spell Damage like a Mage, but also exhibit a tendency for making sacrifices for power, much like Warlock or Warrior. Yet, at the same time, they have access to more than serviceable healing and even some completely new playstyles.

KEYWORD: IMMOLATE

I really wanted a negative keyword this time around, a bit of a departure from most of my classes. It's also very straightforward and acts in a way much like overload, to balance out some extra stats or a cheaper cost. There are some cases where Immolate is used in odd ways to show that a simple keyword such as this does have creative depth to it.

Example Cards

Burning Embers: Burning Embers is a key resource that Warlocks in World of Warcraft stack and utilize for a variety of other skills. True to its form, in Hearthstone, it is a simple cycling card that requires some setup but helps dig further into your deck, allowing you to play your other cards quicker, a somewhat analogous function.

Pyroclasm: This is the hard removal of the Basic set for Blood Mage. It is slightly harder to pull off compared to Hunter's Mark and Execute, but Blood Mages are centered around spells as is evident from the rest of their Basic Set.

Vengeful Sin'dorei: This is the first look at a Blood Mage minion. The core concept of Blood Mage is 'revenge', and this aptly-named minion couldn't be a better example of this playstyle. Synergizes swimmingly with your Hero, and even by itself, it is a huge hassle to deal with in the early game. Though a bit slow (as it cannot deal with boards by itself without other cards to help it along), this card is a premier 3-drop for Blood Mages.

Rain of Fire: Rain of Fire can be a bit of a gamble, but it is important to note that since friendly minions are safe, it is far more likely to hit an enemy than your own face. This kind of card also begs to be part of some ridiculous on-trigger effect combo, much like Healing Rain and Lightwarden are just silly together. Unlike Healing Rain, this card has more utility and is in the Basic Set, foreshadowing strong synergies to come in future sets.

Deadwind Scythe: To round off the showcase cards, this simple weapon shows that Blood Mages are indeed a weapon class. A scythe might look out of place, but Warlocks use scythes regularly and Blood Mages are no strangers to fel magic. This weapon in particular serves as an excellent mid-game tempo play and can find itself a home in slower decks and decks that fight for board control early on.

Remaining Cards